On #WorldWaterDay, check out our deep dive article on options for treating and re-using wastewater:

Our wastewater infrastructure is largely invisible and little understood. Most of us never question the wisdom of polluting pristine drinking water, losing valuable nitrogen and irreplaceable phosphorus in the process, just so we can make our poop disappear. Our own waste is a classic SEP—Somebody Else’s Problem. The result? “Aging pipes and inadequate capacity lead .... to the discharge of an estimated 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage each year,” warns the American Society of Civil Engineers in its report Failure to Act . “Water infrastructure in the United States is clearly aging, and investment is not able to keep up with the need.” (For more, see “Failing Water Infrastructure Drains Economy, Report Warns,” EBN Feb. 2012.) Though most rest areas still use one-way water cycling (onsite septic fields or long-distance connections with centralized systems), a few thr...